Still Waiting for Walker to File Campaign Reports,
Illegal Skirting of Election Law Seems to Bother no one

By Mike Hudson

September 09, 2014

When Charles Walker told the Niagara Gazette that his "campaign manager," Isaac Williams, did not know how to use a computer, he forgot to consider that the Niagara Falls Reporter would contact Williams, who, we learned, was an IT specialist and computer expert.

Back in July, we reported that Niagara Falls City Councilman Charles Walker had not filed required campaign finance reports since January, 2013.

"I have to sit down this week or next week to get that figured out," he said at the time.

Guess what? As of press time, and nearly two months later, the five-term councilman still hasn't filed any reports.

Rather than accept responsibility for his failure, Walker chose to blame his "campaign treasurer," Isaac Williams, who, Walker said, was unable to learn how to file the reports or submit them on the internet during an 18-month period.

"He couldn't figure out how to get it into the system," Walker told the Niagara Gazette.

In a subsequent story, the Reporter revealed that Walker's so-called incompetent treasurer, Williams, is none other than the brother of Stephanie Cowart, executive director of the Niagara Falls Municipal Housing Authority and that Walker's allegedly computer illiterate treasurer taught computer skills to those presumably more illiterate than he is - at the Housing Authority!

The Reporter contacted Williams who is employed as an information systems assistant at Unifrax Corporation, hardly a position that would be held by someone who couldn't master the rather idiot-proof software design employed by the Board of Elections. When contacted, Williams called out Walker's lies, saying he wasn't Walkers' treasurer and that, of course, he knows how to submit simple internet submissions, had he ever been asked, which he wasn't.

But Walker needed a fall guy. Not just one reporting period was missed, but every single one for a period that now stretches over 20 months - including his entire election cycle in 2013 when he was re-elected to his fifth term as councilman.

Given Walker's lame, blame-game excuses and lack of public comment, one can only ask what he is trying to hide?

Did he take money from Buffalo developer Mark Hamister while championing his downtown hotel project that still hasn't broken ground? Has he taken money from other donors who he has helped?

Walker held a fundraiser at the Como Restaurant last year. The Reporter observed several prominent people at that gathering. Did none of these make contributions?

If they did, what did Walker do with the money?

One wonders what would happen if Glenn Choolokian, Sam Fruscione, or, for that matter, Andrew Cuomo, George Maziarz, Paul Dyster, or any other elected official of note or name, had failed to file their campaign disclosures for more than 20 months.